ONE is a sweet musk fragrance that was created to celebrate Smell Bent's first anniversary. It is built around the note of paper, which is a traditional 1st anniversary gift. ONE was part of Smell Bent's limited collection for Halloween in 2010 and is the scent of aging paperbacks buried under cardamom, dark vanilla, dry wood and sweet musk.
SMELL BENT ONE REVIEWS
cafleurebon - One is a beautiful piece of assured composition which starts with a delicate zephyr of cardamom which then is matched by a soft woody accord slightly cedar-like but not quite. The heart is described as an aging paperback books accord. The slightly sweet smell of yellowed paper comes alive and rises out of the lightly spicy woody top notes like an apparition. All of a sudden it feels like you’ve walked into a used paperback bookstore. The base notes reflect what have become two “go-to” notes for Mr. Leonesio, vanilla and musk. A large number of Smell Bent fragrances contain vanilla and/or musk. That level of familiarity allows Mr. Leonesio to expertly attenuate both of the notes so that vanilla acts as complementary sweetness to the aged paper and the musk adds a bit of natural decay to the mix. If you are a fan of CB I Hate Perfume In The Library, One is the middle class version of Christopher Brosius’ fragrant milieu. Both get that aging paper accord spot on and it sets both fragrances apart.
The Muse in Wooden Shoes - I totally dig this thing. This is a lot like what I was expecting from Dzing! after having read the review in P:TG – old books and vanilla. I won’t say I was disappointed in Dzing!, because I think it’s fascinating, but Dzing! is pretty much Virtual Circus to me, complete with sawdust, animal fur and dung, and cotton candy: really cool, but too dirty-smelling for my personal taste. One, though, is terrific. It does open up with the clearly identifiable, slightly-musty smell of old books, which I love, and then slides through spices into woods soaked in vanilla extract. It’s a wonderful combination of weird and comforting, pretty much the same effect as Bvlgari Black.
